ICYMI: Yesterday I recapped the recent, and uniformly-negative, assessments of 3+ years of "America First" trade & industrial policy cato.org/blog/checking-…
I didn't get into the weeds in that post and instead let the headlines do the heavy-lifting, but here are the general conclusions for those who don't subscribe and/or are lazy: /2
1) Steel tariffs didn't work: they boosted prices & goosed investment short-term, BUT 1) caused real damage to steel-consuming manufacturers, exporters hit by retaliation, & "rust belt" state economies; & 2) steelcos started shedding jobs/factories when the sugar high faded /3
2) Trump's "anti-outsourcing" threats didn't work: US cos, even in Trump's crosshairs like Carrier, kept (quietly) making labor decisions based on longstanding fundamentals.

(Note: the overall job mkt was still good; disruption is a "price" of having a dynamic mkt economy) /4
3) The administration's industrial policies haven't worked: beyond the well-known Kodak/Foxconn/Harley-Davidson/etc debacles, "Rust Belt" jobs have actually lagged the rest of the country /5
4) The China tariffs not only didn't result in new US manufacturing (cos that left China mostly moved to Vietnam, India, & other low-cost mfg countries), but actually made things worse for many US manufacturers & the economy (especially due to the uncertainty) /6
The lesson: just because you call something "America First," doesn't mean it's actually good for the country. And instead of standing in the ocean promising to make the waves stop, Trump & other US pols (*cough*Biden*cough*) should accept reality and start building boats /x

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More from @scottlincicome

27 Oct
✅Standard Time is natural and healthy.

✅Daylight Savings Time is a government-created disaster.

✅Just get up earlier.

wsj.com/articles/why-t… #EndDST #FallBackForever Image
"OOOH NO BUT I LIKE TO SLEEP IN AND FROLIC IN THE NIGHTSUN AND WANT GOVERNMENT TO PLACATE MEEEEEEE"

Too bad.
Read 4 tweets
25 Oct
To be clear:

-There are many ways - top-down & bottom-up - to "control" the virus without lockdowns.

-Control & theraputics/vaccines(even herd imm.) are not mutually exclusive.

-The WH abandoning a "control" msg cld encourage riskier behavior (&, I'd think, is bad politics)
HOWEVAH, I'd like to see the whole quote and/or WH clarification.
Read 5 tweets
21 Oct
Quick thread on this: unless you're notorious car-guy @ModeledBehavior, you maybe didn't notice that COVID-19 has increased US demand for, but crippled N. American production of, pickup trucks. Now, even as US truckmakers are going full-tilt, supply is short & prices are HIGH /1
(Demand for sedans/SUVs has also surged, but the shortages/prices don't appear to be as bad.)

So why, you might ask, are Americans only buying trucks made in MX/CAN/USA, when there are all sorts of cool options made elsewhere (see, eg, these bad boys hotcars.com/20-foreign-pic…)? /2
Well, there are 25% tariffs on those trucks, which effectively block imports from non-NAFTA countries.

By contrast, tariffs on cars/SUVs/vans are 2.5% (or duty-free for FTAs), & we have many more options.

This difference has had predictable results during the pandemic. /3
Read 7 tweets
20 Oct
Key finding: "Accounting for all taxpayers, I find that tax filing in the U.S. imposes a yearly cost in excess of 1% of GDP and that this cost has been steadily increasing since the 1980s"
His solutions are so mind-bogglingly easy, so of *course* we don't do them
AND YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHY WE DON'T

Ok, fine, you'll totally guess

politico.com/agenda/story/2… (h/t @stanveuger).
Read 4 tweets
19 Oct
"How Apprenticeship, Reimagined, Vaults Graduates Into Middle Class" wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Neat look at the employer-funded FAME program (started by Toyota & others), which promotes modern ("grey collar") skills w/out a college degree. Love that last line. ImageImageImageImage
The new @BrookingsInst / @opp_america study re the FAME program's success is here: opportunityamericaonline.org/wp-content/upl…
Also noteworthy from that WSJ story: a foreign-owned auto company (which relies on domestic/imported inputs) started the FAME program, AND the highlighted FAME graduate (Mr. Brown) worked for an industry (beverage cans) harmed by... aluminum tariffs.
Read 4 tweets
21 Aug
Letting people do what they want with *their property* is totes socialism & much communism
meanwhile, asserting a personal property interest over *another person's property* is muh freedom
#realtalk: there are legitimate liberty/rights interests for BOTH existing homeowners AND developers/entrants. It's a difficult issue.

BUT the econ/other harms caused by land-use over-regulation are clear, & trying to address them - while balancing these interests! - is Good.
Read 4 tweets

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